The Vice-President and Flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has reiterated his commitment to forging a strong partnership with the Church and Faith-Based Organizations (FBOs) in Ghana for national development if elected President in the December 7 general elections.
According to the Vice-President, deepening the partnership between the church and the state will accelerate national development, necessitating the need to encourage and incentivize the churches and FBOs.
Speaking to the clergy at Nalerigu in the North East Region as part of his nationwide campaign tour, the Vice-President indicated that the Church and FBOs uphold the soul and social fabric of the country, adding that Ghana would struggle without their presence.
He envisioned a new era of relationship between the church and the state, which he referred to as the ‘Golden Age of State and Church Relationship’, affirming that the government would provide the necessary incentives to support the church in its national development agenda.
“I also want to have a golden age of a relationship between government and the church and faith-based organizations. I believe … the church is the foremost development partner of government. Look at the number of schools, hospitals, and universities the churches and faith-based organisations have built. The number of people the churches and faith-based organisations take care of”, he emphasized.
“Can you imagine, just take a thought for a moment that you wake up tomorrow and all the schools, universities, and hospitals the churches have built disappear? … What would Ghana be like? Ghana will collapse, isn’t it? We will not survive in this sort of situation, because there would be chaos,” he said.
Regarding incentives, he explained that they could manifest as import subsidies for projects such as school and hospital construction. He further clarified that his jest about paying churches was intended to emphasize the need to support them and FBOs to enhance their developmental efforts.
“People are talking about taxing churches, … we would not tax churches. Because if you look at the work the churches have done, then I was joking that maybe we should have actually paid them for what they did, not really trying to tax them. But I wasn’t saying we should pay churches. I’m saying that we should give incentives to churches to do more,” he clarified.
He noted that while the government has historically provided incentives for external development partners, it’s equally vital to view churches and FBOs as internal development partners deserving of incentives.
“When we talk about our external development partners, we are giving them all sorts of import exemptions, but when we talk about our internal development partners like the churches or faith-based organisations, we don’t give them any exemptions, but they do more in terms of development than any of our external development partners.
“So I’m saying that we should do more in the areas of incentives such as tax exemptions on import duties when you are coming to build hospitals or schools and so on to support the churches and the other faith-based organisations because they are supporting government,” he stated.
